One Against The Other

Black women seem to have this never ending issue with white women dating black men. Black men openly explore women of other races, while black women limit themselves to only dating black men. I myself will never understand why interracial dating is such a big deal. At one point a black man couldn't even look  at a white woman with out fearing for his life so now that he can openly date the "other" woman he does.The only difference in 2011 is: instead of him being lynched by a white mob of men, he is heavily ridiculed by a mob of angry black women. While I understand that the ratio of black men to black women is 87:100, which already leaves 13 out of every 100 black women single.Who cares be open minded try dating outside of you race maybe you'll like it. If you aren't willing to try new things and explore your options don't complain about being single. LOVE has no boundaries and sees no color so why should we?!?

DON'T LIKE INTERRACIAL DATING? DON'T DO IT
DON'T LIKE GAY MARRIAGE? DON'T GET ONE
DON'T LIKE ABORTIONS? DON'T GET ONE
DON'T LIKE DRUGS? DON'T DO THEM
DON'T LIKE SEX? DON'T HAVE IT
DON'T LIKE HAVING YOUR RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY? DON'T TAKE AWAY ANYONE ELSE'S

xoxo  in the mean time just do you

Beautiful Black Woman,but I Bet that B---- Look Better Red

Over 300 years ago the light skin vs. dark skin dichotomy among African women was created. In Africa, every shade was accepted, embraced, and deemed beautiful. Upon arrival in the New World a distinction among African natives was made. Through this distinction light skin women and dark skin women were pitted against one another. The lighter skinned woman given the "privilege" to be under the watchful eye of a jealous mistress, and the sexual property of an egotistical master. While the darker skinned woman toiled in the fields day in, day out away from her children. Women as a whole light and dark have been complicit in the further perpetuation of this dichotomy.  Especially when they define their beauty solely on their skin pigmentation. Men and the media make it no better. They glorify the lighter woman and often times dont even acknowledge the darker woman outside of the usual under-handed compliment "You're pretty for a dark skin girl".....MY BLACK is BEAUTIFUL no matter how light or dark.  Every shade of black is unique and covers a set of unique features and intangible qualities.

XOXO SUN-KISSED PEACH 

Do I Have To Fit?!?

The tragic mulatto lady....the sore reminder of reality...Helga Crane is on a search to find happiness,and self identity. Helga Crane is the perfect example of the tragic mulatto female. Vying to fit and while still maintain individualism is to no avail. The educated woman of mixed race struggles, she lacks the zeal and appreciation for life that others around her have. Crane's lack of acceptance in either community is a struggle in itself. Her race consciousness is heightened which plays an active role in the lack of fullfillment she has.  Instead of Helga maximizing on her otherness as a whole she allows this to bea hindrance. Through self evaluation, and self-love Helga could have saved herself from being the walking stereotype. It is okay not to fit in a neat box that society outlines. Embrace all things that make you different for those are the things that make one perfectly imperfect.

Short, Nappy & Happy :)

“In a society that tells us long hair on women is beautiful and feminine, I think it takes a little something extra to kick conventions in the groin and chop it; it’s kinda like giving the middle finger to years’ worth of media cliches about how women’s hair is ‘supposed’ to look.”

—	Amanda Chatel   (via short-haired-women-of-color)

The Eugenic Control of the Reproduction of African American Women

 “We don’t allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally having litters of children…”

—Barbara Harris c.1990 

MY BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: Why is it that 70% of African American Women are s...

MY BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: Why is it that 70% of African American Women are s...: "-by choice (choose to marry older, stabilize their lives but often women get set in their ways when they are older and aren't willing to cha..."

Red Zone: "BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN" by Vernon J Davis

Red Zone: "BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN" by Vernon J Davis: " BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN, YOUR BEAUTY IS SURPASSED BY NONE BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN, YOUR SENSUOUS SPLENDOR IS..."

But REALLY THO....

White girl sounds just as demeaning as Black men......and gets a Million dollar deal....is this really okay???............

On Kreayshawn and the Utility of Black Women

6JUN

“De nigger woman is de mule uh de world…”- Zora Neale Hurston

I grew up in a white suburban/rural community where I was one of a few black kids and the only one in my classes and social circle. In high school, we had this habit of waxing nostalgic for our not so distant youth in a way that made us feel older than we were so at a parties we’d often play songs from our childhood. Well once, Baby Got Back came on and I was rapping along as were a white boy and white girl. A crowd formed around them and folks were cheering them on for knowing most of the words while my flawless performance went unacknowledged. Looking back, I see clearly the messy contradictions of racism (and my own internalization of it) as white folks celebrated their proficiency in repeating a black man’s words of purported celebration of my curves that in general, made me invisible. My blackness rendered my rendition null and void as it was presumed I should be able to reproduce that lyrical dexterity on the spot. It was exceptional when they did it but par for the course for me.

And this is partly why Kreayshawn makes me mad. The White Girl Mob media darling blowing up the interwebs whose potential deal with Sony is making waves makes me angry in a way I haven’t been in a long time. Her appropriative swag is yet another reminder (not that we needed any more this month) of how little black women are valued in our society, even in genres we co-create. In a moment where cool is synonymous with swag, a particular manifestation of black masculinity, Kreayshawn’s dismissiveness and denigration of black women animate her success.

“It’s like tumblr made a video,” said one tumblrite, speaking of the white Cali hipster aesthetics of Kreyashawn’s Gucci Gucci. Replete with Indian medallion, black girl hair cut and color, black men flank her on all sides, lending their cool and legitimacy as she talks stealing bitches, smoking blunts, and realness. Catchy with no substance and ample “I’m so different from them other black girls,” Kreyashawn is the perfect accoutrement to the tortured misogyny of her friends and co-signers Odd Future. For her, calling women bitches and hoes is funny, a category she is somehow exempt from via her whiteness and sometimes queerness. She’s got swag because she fucks bitches too, though she’s quick to point out she’s “not a raging lesbian.”

I think “Hoes on My Dick” perhaps best captures my problems with Kreayshawn and those who dig her.  About a year ago, comedian Andy Milonakis (Who you might remember from his brief MTV fame) and Rapper Lil’ B decided to parody rap music and made the satirical “Hoes on My Dick” which features the choice language “Hoes on my dick cuz I look like Madonna” or “Hoes on my dick cuz I look like grandma.” Anyway, we were supposed to laugh. Ha ha! Isn’t funny/ironic when they say misogynist things when they know it’s wrong? Kreayshawn took their track and made it her own adding her own lyrics, “rapped” (if you could call it that) with all due seriousness and folks love it!

As Crunktastic has already pointed out on this blog, the derogatory slang words used for women imply race. “Hoes” are black and the proverbial punchline (pun intended) for the LA hispster/hip hop mash up sound that music critics are lauding. The supposed *wink wink nudge nudge* associated with their misogynoir is what makes them so edgy and so real. The objectification of black women as a lyrical trope is what makes Kreayshawn interesting. Look at this white girl who talks like a black man! Isn’t she awesome?

And not that black women haven’t tried to appropriate  a type of black masculine cool through a similar practice of denigrating other black women and expressing their allegiance to black men but they have not been as successful. Syd Tha Kid, DJ and beat maker for Odd Future is currently following this path and her queer black masculinity doesn’t seem all that queer when she speaks of women in the same derogatory fashion as her band mates.

Kreayshawn claims Nicole Wray, Missy and Aaliyah as women who inspired and influenced her sound but black women are rarely seen in her circle or videos. I’ve clocked two black women in Kreayshawn’s videos, one a silent love interest, and the other a silent hair stylist. In so far as black women are useful, they exist, though they never get to voice their own reality. It’s incredibly frustrating that the more things change the more things stay the same, that Zora Neal Hurston’s words still ring true today.

Special thanks to Alexsarah and CF’s Sheri & Whitney for talking through this with me!

Apparently Kreayshawn was on the brain today. Check out Clutch Magazine’stake.

Via The CrunkFeministCollective

Beauty Depiction -CJ

If I stripped you of your make up..
False eye lashes
Lip gloss and colored contacts
If someone had never invented lip stick
If you couldn’t wear foundation
and they didn’t make concealer
You couldn’t dye your hair
and you couldn’t paint your nails
If the beauty shop was never invented
You rocked a tight bun or
Your hair at its natural state
What if good hair wasn’t curly hair
If a perm never existed
and the world did not favor light skin
Your body was disproportional
Boob jobs did not exist
What if you couldn’t enhance your body if it wasn’t from within
No eyeliner or exfoliating cream
No spa dates
No such things as beauty treatments
What if you couldn’t tan
Ill let you keep the braces (some people teeth are just that bad)
What if magazines and TV shows did not depict beauty
What if women weren’t so superficial
and men weren’t so hormone driven
What if your profile picture could not be photo shopped
If intellect determined the color of your hair
Smoothness of your skin depicted by charm
Whiteness of your teeth by knowledge of worldly affairs
Body image based soley on character
If going back to the fundamentals of a being
With image to the eye being something that did not exist
If you couldn’t enhance your look with cosmetics
But, enhance YOU with knowledge
What if the texture of your hair depended on humanitarian efforts
Or you were only as beautiful as the things you know
Only as elegant as the words you spoke
What would you look like?

“Too many of us still believe that “self-respect” for a woman means chastity and modesty. If she’s wearing revealing clothing, enjoys attention, and maybe even likes sex outside of a committed monogamous relationship, we call her a “slut”—and accuse her of not respecting herself. Perhaps she does respect herself, perhaps she doesn’t. (Promiscuity is not perfectly correlated with low self-esteem, despite what a lot of pop psychologists tell you.) But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Women aren’t commodities whose value is based on their own fluctuating sense of self-worth.”-Hugo Schwyzer

Mis-EDUCATION of BARBIE

A Chance to finally LIVE

Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in the late 1930's by Zora Neale Hurston.  It chronicles Janie's struggle to find a voice. Her grandmother wants her married off as soon as possible with her economic and social security in mind,rather than her passion,happiness and sanity. Janie is rebellious against her grandmothers attempts. She comes to the realization that there are two things a person must find out for themselves, love and living life. After being in  a marriage for 20 years her husband Jody Starks falls ill and dies. On his death bed, Jody expects Janie to remain obedient, he even wishes death upon her. His death is briefly mourned, but ultimately it is one of the most liberating experiences she has.  Many people judge her recovery as not having love for Jody however she voices to her friend Pheoby " The mourning shouldn't last  a second longer than the grief does."  Tea Cake comes along and sweeps Janie off of her feet, he adds spark to her life and they actually live sharing a deep passion and love for one another. In the midst of the towns gossip Janie is true LIVING for the first time in nearly 40 years. Soon Janie runs off with Tea Cake and sacrifices everything including financial stability for her happiness.  Overall, Janie ended up with the the perfect fairytale she stepped outside of what the community thought was right for her and truly began to live for herself. As a community Black people are to hard on each other. With all the gossip and putting down of others it makes it that much easier for people outside of our race to do the same. Despite what others think Janie is presented with the opportunity to truly LIVE and fully seizes that opportunity.

The Colored Girl

My previous post was written before I read Williams piece The Colored Girl, it couldn't have been better articulated. The Colored Girl in America has an inevitably hard lot in life.  The Colored Girl is the cause and effect, the cause of the degradation of an entire race, while effecting racial uplift and progress in all facets, especially social, and educational. The Colored Girl has to pry doors open while other women graciously glide through those same doors of opportunities. While the Colored Girl has to vie for the respect, love, and admiration of all she looks inward to for self love, esteem, and pride. The Colored Girl is the strongest, most loving, most beautiful creature God could have created. She has not allowed the woes of life to make her bitter. For this I am proud to say, while being a Colored Girl is rough I would not have it any other way. I am a Colored Girl and I stand on the shoulders of all the Colored Women that have entered before me.

Until next time.....embrace who you are and the rich history of your foremothers

Being in Me ISN'T EASY

Danger: EDUCATED BLACK WOMAN

MORE THAN CURVES

Most see me and think she's not light or dark, but perfectly sun kissed. Full lips, D Cup Breast, small waist, 40 in the hips, thinck thighs, 5ft 5in, 170 pounds of heaven sent greatness. Everything that physically defines me makes it that much harder for the intangible me to manifest.

DONT MINIMIZE MY INTTELLECT IM A DEGREE HOLDING BLACK WOMAN

 My intellect often goes unrecognized, my ability to selflessly serve my community unacknowledged, and my advocacy for education intolerable.  I love being me but it is noeasy task. One of the hardest things to be in America is an EDUCATED BLACK WOMAN. my physical attributes are oversexualized while my intellect is minimized.

Choosing Her Own Fate

The narrative of slave girls is usually the same; remaining naive about the ill wills of slavery until the tender age of 15. It is at this age that they begin to experiencce the trials of girlhood. In which, they are "made" women by their masters and become the victims of jealous mistresses. Beauty becomes Harriet Jacob's greatest curse. She is subjected to the reading of letters that at first she pretended to not understand, but in her age and ability to read she could no longer remain ignorant to the content of the letters.Jacob's feared for her life nothing worse than to wake up with a jealous woman standing over you in the wake of the night. To spite her master Jacob's infringes upon the values her grandmother has instilled in her and she seeks the companionship of Mr.Sands, another white man. Though it seems wrong for her to be complicit in the exploitation of herself Jacob's has her reasons. She chooses her own fate to sleep with whom she pleases rather than being forced to sleep with her master. Jacob's goes to extreme measures to spite her master and evade his plan for her womanhood. Jacob bears 2 children with Mr.Sands in hopes of gaining freedom for her and her children. She thinks that her plan will be so despicable in the sight of her master that he would just sell her, however he doesn't. While Jacob's had an ulterior motive, deeming her virginity worth freedom her plan is unsuccessful. With such a high level of discontentment with her place in slavery Jacob's flees plantation life. She later returns and spends 7 years in a crawl space in her grandmother's attic. Jacob's is one of few slave girls that is successful in escaping the clutches of  slavery in her own unique way. Though in the end she doesnt truely feel free, her state of mind is free. She is no longer the victim of her master and mistress, that is freedom in itself. Jacob's chooses her own fate in much her journey through slavery to freedom.

Interesting Blog Post

http://keepinuinformed.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/sara-baartman-our-world-first-official-video-vixen-keeping-u-informed/



simply double click the link or copy and paste it into you web browser.

What's the DIFFERENCE?

Saartjie Baartman bka Venus Hottentot1789-1815  

Onika Tanya Maraj aka Nicki Minaj 

1984- present

How Has Gender Shaped Race?--The Venus Hottentot

Dating back to 1814 the bodies of African women have been used to determine the humanity of  an entire race of people. Sarah  Baartman was taken from her home in Capetown, South Africa  to be placed on display and exploited sexually, physically , emotionally and mentally, throughout Europe. Scientist among others felt the need to validate  her humanity and womanhood. This has left a lasting impressions on society and the way in which Black women as a whole are viewed and continue to be exploited. This exploitation does not fall solely on the shoulders of the exploiters but falls on society, consumers, and all women. Baartman's case is a very unfortunate situation that essentially laid the framework  for the depiction of all Black women, from slavery through the 21st century. The video outraged me and made me anxious to hear the thoughts and feelings of my peers. It bothers me that Black women are not judged based on  their talent, intellect and other abilities but rather the preconceived notions of what they should look like.  I was quite bewildered by the deplorable conditions that led to her demise. Post death her body was place on display at a museum in Paris until 1974  which speaks to the lack of  respect for her dignity and humanity. Ultimately, the genitalia of Baartman were used to shape the difference between what was human as well as the differences between women of African decent in relation to those of European decent.  The case of Venus Hottentot is relevant, it prevails today in a reformed and covert way.

What is Race?

When i first heard the question what is race my first though was:  Race is a social construct used to differentiate between people based on skin pigmentation. My next thought was its importance: Race began as an arbitrary entity that has been reified over time, thus made important. As my peers and I stated what we thought race meant to us i began to look at the things scattered on the board and thought : Race can be synonymous with stereotyping.  Our professor  later posed the question Is Race Important?  We came to the consensus that it is but it shouldn't be...... i readily scribbled in my notebook " If race matters then why have people fought so hard for it not to matter?"........